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IRS Harassment of Liberty Minded Groups Should Worry Us All

Some conservatives and libertarians long suspected that the IRS may be targeting Tea Party and limited government groups. The conservative news outlet The Blaze questioned whether the Obama administration was using the IRS to silence liberty-minded groups due to their outrageous demands and scrutiny over a year ago.

According toThe Blaze, The Ohio Liberty Council’s (OLC) President Tom Zawistokowski wrote that the IRS had been demanding very detailed information on the OLC's activities back in early 2012. The liberty group had to almost stop their activities just to find time to comply with the IRS.

My own Portage County TEA Party has been waiting for over a year just to get a response from the IRS so we can file our 2010 tax return! In the attached PDF I share with you, the “Additional Information Requested” of the Ohio Liberty Council from our June 30th, 2010 application which we just received on January 30, 2012. Yes, they took a year and a half to respond to our application and they are giving us two weeks to respond back. As you will see, this is no simple request.

A hard copy printout of the website – A PDF file emailed to the IRS will not suffice (and this is the high-tech Administration)

List all Social Media outlets being used (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and include hard copy printouts of every posting

A narrative description of every activity of your organization since June 30, 2010 (filing date) – And they do not want a mere description of the event, but full details – including; who conducted it, their qualifications, who was allowed to take part in the activities and how they were selected, was there a fee? (how much)

The IRS also wants to know about the members of the group and their roles and more, asking specifically for the “name, address, and corporate federal ID of all organizations that are members of our organization

Remember: all of this information was posted publicly over a year ago.

The mainstream media never took any of their worries seriously, likely dismissing them as “wacko conspiracies.”

Well…their suspicions were proven true.

As we have learned over the past few days, the IRS had been targeting liberty groups for more than three years. They gave “special” scrutiny to groups with “Patriot”, “Tea Party”, or “9/12” in its name. Progressive minded groups were not given this same treatment when they applied for non-profit status. Apparently, the federal government feels threatened by groups that promote American principles such as constitutionally limited government.

This should worry all Americans, regardless of their political views. The federal government should treat all Americans equally. A Republican presidential administration giving extra scrunity to liberal groups would be just as wrong and corrupt. It is outrageous that the government is harassing citizens for their political affiliations. This is a violation of the First Amendment and we demand answers from the IRS and the Obama administration.

Was your liberty group unfairly targeted by the IRS? Tell us your story here.

Adolph Hitler and Bonaparte would have loved to have had the American I R S.

05/15/2013

All of this is expected. This is what they do. Plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto, calling for a progressive income tax, was enacted right here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave along with central banking (plank #5 in the Communist Manifesto) one hundred years ago in 1913. Everything in the Communist Manifesto is designed for central control. Time to cut these parts out of our society before they metastasise (if they haven't already).

Comment on this post... Looks like the IRS now has a Register of names of the people that disagree with Obama's Ideology. Maybe that is why Obama had Eric Holder buy a prison.
Respectfully
feoliocifoico

Americans already spend some 6 billion hours and $168 billion each year complying with a complex and onerous tax code. But ObamaCare is going to make tax filing even more of a chore for consumers who received subsidies for health plans purchased through the state and federal exchanges.

As the second ObamaCare open enrollment period came to a close over the weekend, more Americans learned that they owe Uncle Sam money because they received subsidies that were too great, in many cases because they had underestimated their income levels for 2014 when they applied for coverage through the health insurance exchanges.

The practice known as Civil Asset Forfeiture is getting more attention these days, and deservedly so. Americans need to know that there is a legal mechanism for the government to empty their bank accounts, even if they haven’t been convicted or formally accused - of a crime.

We all know that Congress has some big ticket items on its agenda for next year - repealing ObamaCare, balancing the budget, reining the president’s executive authority, but receiving less attention than perhaps they should are a number of smaller regulatory battles in which the new Republican majority could make a real difference.

Washington, DC- Following news that the Obama administration refused to release documents that could prove the IRS shared taxpayer returns with the White House, FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe released the following statement:

There's a new scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service. Already deserved criticism for its targeting of conservative organizations and promulgating rules allowing ObamaCare subsidies in states that have opted out of ObamaCare, the powerful tax agency is now under fire for seizing bank accounts of Americans who've done absolutely nothing wrong.

Lois Lerner really doesn't want to answer questions about her role in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations. The former head of the powerful tax agency's Exempt Organization Division refused to testify in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in May 2013, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights.